Victorian high society worshipped Felix Mendelssohn,
and you could not get higher than Queen Victoria and her Consort, Prince
Albert, who were among his most ardent admirers. Mendelssohn seemed
to have all the talents – youthful high spirits, sensitivity, a gentle
romanticism and, above all, a precocious musical genius. It is easy
to see why the Songs without words appealed to parlour pianists,
but his fluency and refinement easily overcame whatever concessions
he may have made to public taste, and works such as the Scottish
and Italian Symphonies, Hebrides Overture and E minor
Violin Concerto have proved durable audience-pleasers. However, the
time has perhaps come for a reassessment of his more intimate chamber
works. The three Piano Quartets and six string quartets span Mendelssohn’s
creative life and, next to the Octet, the two Piano Trios are among
his most frequently played chamber works. On this disc the performances
are on gut-strung string instruments and a Graf fortepiano.

Every important artistic movement passes through three
phases. In the first the artist fashions the idiom, in the second it
comes more readily to hand and in the third he is driven to new ways
of using it. Both Mendelssohns had reached the third phase of the romantic
movement in music, where the structural disciplines of nineteenth-century
classical sonata form are replaced by a more adventurous kind of "through
composition". Relatively little thematic material is repeated completely,
and more latitude is given to the open-textured writing that is Mendelssohn’s
hallmark. The C minor Trio shows Mendelssohn in full command of the
medium: formally fastidious, yet inventive and constantly pleasing.

It is interesting – and appropriate – that instead
of Felix’s first Trio (which Schumann called the "the master trio
of our time") the Atlantis players chose the lesser-known Trio
Op, 11 by his sister Fanny for this disc. Women composers were rare
birds in the nineteenth century, and Fanny faced the additional embarrassment
of her brother’s formidable reputation. However, the work stands firmly
on its merits and rises easily above salon prettiness. The writing is
less cohesive and finely-wrought than her brother’s, but Fanny was well
equipped to meet the demands of an extended four movement work which
inhabits the lyrical world of her songs and piano pieces. The emotional
temperature is higher (or perhaps nearer the surface) and the structural
approach more episodic compared with Felix’s evolutionary treatment
of his material. The third movement Lied: allegretto, clearly
a "song without words", points to the nineteenth century taste
for vocal music in concert arrangements and instrumental transcriptions
and, in this case, brings a lowering of the emotional temperature.

The discussion by members of the Atlantis Trio illustrated
by extracts from both works, is intelligent and informal though, with
a playing time of 24 minutes, I am not sure that listeners will find
that it adds a great deal to the enjoyment of performances themselves,
especially since the 21-page insert leaflet is itself highly informative.
Naturally the players are enthusiastic about their "historically
informed" approach. I am not so sure. Brilliantly played though
it is in some passages the Graf’s crisp, forward tone and resonant middle
register tends to dominate the quieter-sounding strings and leads in
places to an imbalance that might not be noticeable in a concert hall,
but occasionally becomes obtrusive in this recording.

Tragically both Felix and Fanny died young in the year
after these works were written. Felix’s last Quartet, the most sombre
and intimate of his chamber works, reflects the grief he felt at the
loss of his sister.

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